The European Commission adopted, on Wednesday 14 December, revised State aid rules for the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture sectors. The revised rules align State aid with the EU’s strategic priorities, in particular the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the European Green Deal.
The Commission has also decided to prolong for one year, until 31 December 2023, the validity of its so-called Fishery ‘de minimis’ Regulation.
The new rules in the adopted package are as follows:
- the revised Agricultural Block Exemption Regulation and Fishery Block Exemption Regulation (exempted from the requirement of prior notification to and approval by the Commission, provided that they fulfil certain conditions);
- the new Guidelines for State aid in the agriculture and forestry sector and in rural areas and the new Guidelines for State aid in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
All these rules will apply from the 1st of January 2023.
The main changes to the Block Exemption Regulation include:
- a significant extension of the scope of block-exempted measures by category: aid to prevent or compensate damage caused by protected animals, aid in favour of environmental management commitments and aid for cooperation in the agricultural and forestry sectors or aid to prevent or repair damage caused by adverse climatic events in the fishery and aquaculture sector;
- a new ceiling for European Innovation Partnership Operational Group projects targeting the farming sector. Projects below €500,000 or up to €2 million per company are now block-exempted.
The new rules block-exempt up to 50% of cases which before were subject to notification.
Link to the new Guidelines: https://aeur.eu/f/4of (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)